sobbed, shoulders quaking as I turned the pages. Woo In and Kathleen searched the rest of the apartment for clues, tactfully allowing me privacy.
I read for over an hour. All the attention, all the affection I had craved from The Lady was here, written in clear, generous script. I could even feel her love, wafting from the memories of each page. But from the years of notes, one thing was missing. The journal called me my daughter. My girl. Darling. Made-of-Me.
But never, ever Tarisai.
Kathleen and Woo In returned, and wordlessly, he offered me a silk handkerchief.
“Did The Lady mention Aiyetoro’s masks in there?” Kathleen asked.
I shrugged, letting Woo In take the journal as I swabbed my runny nose. The handkerchief was so heavily scented it must have been from The Lady’s wardrobe. I sneezed.
Woo In scanned the journal voraciously. “Sometimes,” he murmured. “She references previous searches, so maybe there’s more in the other journals. There’s plenty in here about us, though.” He chuckled at a page. “My, my, Kat, The Lady doesn’t think much of your singing voice.”
Kathleen huffed in offense and tried to wrestle the journal from him.
“Be careful with that,” I ordered, and the two of them jumped, staring at me.
“Am’s Story,” Kathleen muttered. “For a moment, you sounded just like The Lady.” She relinquished the journal to Woo In.
I asked him warily, “How many of you are there, again?”
“You mean of The Lady’s council? Ten, so far,” he replied. “Three came with The Lady as children from An-Ileyoba. The rest of us were found after her exile.”
“Where did she hide after leaving Oluwan?” I asked. “And why did she anoint you? Council members only represent Arit realms. Songland isn’t part of the empire.”
“The Lady had a new kind of empire in mind,” said Woo In, his voice soft with reverence. “She’s different from your ancestor Enoba. He barred Songland from trading with the rest of the continent as punishment for our refusal to join his empire. But The Lady wants to change everything. That is why she anointed me. When she is empress, Songland can be represented on the Arit council, regardless of whether we choose to join the empire. Before I was your nursemaid, I campaigned for The Lady in Songland, convincing my family to trust her, and lend her aid when necessary.”
It was hard to remember that Woo In was a prince. Most Redemptors grew up in orphanages, abandoned at birth by families who could not bear the pain of sacrificing them later.
“What’s it like?” I asked. “Being a prince who wasn’t supposed to survive? I’m sure you and Mother had a lot in common.”
“We did, and do.” He smiled tightly. “But I had better luck than The Lady when it came to older siblings. My sister Min Ja has always been protective of me, though … critical of my alliance with The Lady.”
“I still don’t understand why you think Mother can help you. No one can control where Redemptors are born.”
“As I told you long ago,” he replied, “only a Raybearer may unlock the secret of the Redemptor Treaty. Enoba made sure of it. The Lady knows how to save the Songland Redemptors, but she couldn’t share the process with me: She said it’s too intuitive for the Rayless to understand.” He pressed his lips together, as if trying not to let the secret chafe at him. “It’s the only way. If The Lady becomes empress and succeeds in freeing Songland, then my mother, Queen Hye Sun, will recognize me as Prince Ambassador: the first Songlander to have a seat on the Arit Imperial Councils.”
I frowned. The abiku had implied that the selection of Redemptors was random. They had said, “The blood decides.” Had they been lying? Could The Lady really control where Redemptors were born?
“Maybe she explains it in here,” Woo In murmured, flipping fervently through the journal. I watched him with pity. How could The Lady keep secrets from a follower as devoted as Woo In? And how could he love her so much, that he trusted her anyway?
Then I laughed at my own hypocrisy. Of course Woo In trusted The Lady. Just like a touch-starved little girl, gazing from her study window, had trusted that her mother was away on important business.
Together, Woo In and I collected several other volumes of The Lady’s journals and papers. I hunted for evidence of her Ray and read of her failed attempts to locate the fabled lost masks of female Raybearers. In the meantime,